Uncharted: Legends
by The Stream
Summary: Stories of the great fortune-seeker, Nathan Drake. (I Do Not Own The Uncharted Game Series)


_**Uncharted**_

_- Prologue –_

_Into the jungle_

* * *

"Come on, Sully!" Nate called after the old man, who was walking slowly behind him. The climbing up the cliff wall seemed a challenge to the old man. He was breathing heavily, and stopped every two seconds to catch a breath.

"Slow down kid, I'm starting to get too old for this crap," Sully answered the call. "You gonna give me a god damn heart attack," the old man added. Once he was starting to get to the top of the wall, Nate held down his hand, so he could drag Sully up from the wall.

The wall hadn't been that tall, or challenging to climb, at least not for Nate. He had climbed up similar cliff, mountain, and even building walls, his whole life. So had Sully, but Nate had to admit, that when you turn Sully's age, it would be hard to keep climbing.

"What are you talking about? You're in the best shape of your life," Nate said as he helped Sully up from the hard ground. Nate chuckled as he said that, and then he hit Sully softly on the shoulder. "Let's go, it not far from here."

Nate and Sully continued down a path that went further into the jungle. Nate who walking in the front, he held up a map of Colombia's south jungle. The map seemed unnecessary complicated, it showed the whole jungle, but some landmarks, like the cliff that they just had climbed up. It was nowhere on the map, and the cliff had been the highest cliff in the area. _Stupid map, _Nate thought.

"Could you please remind me, what we are doing here?" Sully asked as he struggled to push away leaf's and branches hanging from the tall trees. He cursed a few times as he did.

A commander of a local Colombian privet army, Raul Fernandez. Had asked Nate to find "special" relic, which supposedly was in a temple deep inside the Colombian jungle. Nate explained this to Sully.

"So why doesn't the big time commander, come down here himself and find it?" Sully asked, as he cut of the branches in front of him with a knife. "He has the man power, so the search would be pretty simple for him."

Sully was right on that part. Raul and his own army that he had formed ten years ago, was one of the most feared in all of Colombia. People heard tales of Raul, and his men, and how they killed, raped and tortured, humans. Just so their existents would be remembered in Colombia, forever.

"He can't," Nate answered. "The police have put out a wanted poster on after him, alive or dead. But to be honest, I don't think anybody could get him alive, you should have seen the guy, Sully. Just his shadow scared the crap outta me."

"Yeah, well, what does this commander, want with this relic? I can't see what he would want with it," Sully said.

"Who knows?" Nate said. Then he stopped and started to look around. "Where the hell is this temple?" Nate asked himself. He was starting to get frustrated; where ever he looked there was no sign of any sort of building, or similar to a building. No high wall, that should have been seen through the trees, no temple peek, could be seen in the sky. So where was this temple?

"Are you sure it's even here?" Sully asked. Even he was starting to worry, and there haven't been a lot of times where Sully, had started to question Nate's abilities, that Sully, himself had thought him so many years ago.

Nate looked back at Sully, and smiled. "What? You don't trust me?" He asked. Sully chuckled.

"Hmph, I trust you, but not that Raul, commander. He doesn't strike me as the, honest man of the year, kind of guy," Sully took out a cigarette, that he had in his breast pocket on his green, and white striped shirt, and then he lit it with a match.

Nate chuckled. "He isn't, trust me. But you gotta have more faith in me Sully." Sully shrugged his shoulders and inhaled the smoke from his cigarette.

Nate then looked up towards a tree, and then he sighed. "What is it, you found something?" Sully asked. Nate shook his head.

"No, but I just figured out a way on how we can find the temple, and I don't really like it," Nate answered.

"How?" Sully asked.

Nate pointed up towards one of the trees that were in front of him. "I could climb up one of those trees, and get a better vantage point, from up there," he said. Sully just nodded his head.

"Yeah, but be careful, you don't wanna slip and fall from that height, probably break your damn neck," Sully said, and then he sat down on a tree, that had fallen to the ground years ago. "I'll wait for you down here," Sully added.

Nate chuckled again, and raised an eyebrow. "Of course you will," he said. He looked up towards the top of the tree, which Nate had chosen to climb up. He didn't really know how he had chosen which tree he would climb. They were all tall, and some of them you couldn't even see the top, it just disappeared in the sky, or the sun was so bright that it wouldn't let Nate's eyes see the top, without becoming blind.

Nate sighed deeply, to himself, and then he grabbed one of the tree's branches, and then started to climb up. It wasn't easy. Climbing a tree, not like climbing up building walls or mountain walls, no. Trees were a lot tougher to climb, if you didn't know how, but fortunately Nate, did knew how.

When he was a kid, around ten years old, he lived in a state home, for boys, which had been given up to the state by their parents. Nathan Drake, or Nate as he was often called. Was five years old, when his father gave him to the government. His mother committed suicide.

The boys' home, where Nathan, lived in until he was a teenager, was ruled by nuns, who taught him many thing, including Latin. Of course the nuns didn't teach Nate, how to climb like he now did. That was something that he thought himself, whenever he could, he would sneak out from the home and just climb up to rooftops, and run around the building's roof, and even jump to another one.

The great part with climbing, and using the rooftops as a fast transportation device is that: Nobody ever saw him, no one down on the streets ever looked up towards the sky, if they did, they would have seen a teenage boy, running around, jumping through the air, grabbing ledges on walls, and climbing up the walls.

Nate would probably end up in a jail cell, if they ever saw him, and that was a place he never wanted to be in.

He was a good way up the tree, when Nate stopped and looked around the surroundings. He couldn't see so much from that point, just other trees. He needed to get higher up the tree, so he started to climb again. "See anything?!" Sully called down from the ground.

"Nah!" Nate answered. "Nothing yet, I need to get higher up. Then I should be able to see the whole jungle," he added.

Sully nodded, and continued to smoke his cigar. He took a long inhale and had to cough after. "Damn thing is going to kill me," he said to himself.

When Nate, was finally as close as he could get, to the top of the tree. He could see the entire jungle from there, towards the south there was only more jungle, no temple in sight for miles. To the west there was a town in the horizon, but it was too far away for Nate to see the city in detail, he could only make out the small buildings. To the north there was more jungle; Nate could also see the long dirt road that stretched across the fields beyond the jungle. It was that road, which Nate and Sully drove through with their car, to get to the jungle. Nate didn't know why he looked towards the north; they had entered the jungle from that direction. So it would be impossible for them to miss a big temple in the middle of the jungle.

Nate was starting to think that there was no temple, and that Raul had lied to him. But that didn't make any sense, why would Raul lie to him? He had nothing to gain from that, it was Raul who sent him out here in the first place, it was his money he was going to pay Nate with after the job. _Where is this place? _Nate thought, and then he looked towards the east, and he saw it.

There was not much to see to be honest, Nate could barely see it was temple, he could only see the sharp peak on the top of the temple. He almost didn't see that either, just because the other tree tops around the peak of the temple surrounded it. But the peak of the temple was in bright golden and the tree tops where all green. "You seeing it kid?" Sully asked from the ground.

"Either I'm seeing a temple, or a golden tree," Nate answered.

"What are you talking about?!" Sully called. Nate started to chuckle, and then he looked down towards Sully. He looked like an ant, from where he was hanging by the peak of the tree.

"Nothing… nothing, I see the temple, it's a few hundred yards to the east from us," Nate said, and then he started to climb down the tree. This was much easier, and faster, then climbing _up_ the tree.

"Great, so that means: More walking," Sully said. Nate started to laugh. He loved to hear the old man complain. Everything was so damn hard for him, he was always so lazy.

"I guess so, Sully." Nate said, as he was getting closer to the ground. After he was down from the tree, he dusted of his clothes from leaves of the tree branches. "But hey, it will be a nice little walk through a Colombian jungle," Nate said, as he started to walk towards the east, and the temple.

"Hmph, nothing nice about it," Sully said, as he threw down his cigar to the ground, and then stomped on it. "Hell, I just wanna find this stupid relic, and spend the money in some bar. I hear the Colombian bars; have the best drinks in the world."

"You hear a lot of things, Sully. But that one isn't true, trust me on that," Nate said, Sully tried to figure out what Nate knew about Colombian bars. Nathan wasn't the drinking type of guy. And if he was drinking, it wasn't to get drunk, but for getting something out from it, like information or money from a drinking game.

Nathan Drake was one of the best in his line of business. Many knew that. When somebody needed a relic, or something like that. They always went to Nate, he knew what he was doing, and he didn't need a whole private army, to get the job done. He did the job by himself, or with some help from Sully.

It was hot in the damn jungle. _God dammit, _Nathan thought as he wiped of the sweat gathering on his forehead, with the back of his left hand. His green T-shirt was soaked in his sweat. "This damn heat, wow," Nathan said as he continued further to the east. He looked back at the old man behind him. Sully was breathing heavily, like a swimmer who had just come out form the water. "You alright, old timer?" He stopped next to Sully.

Sully seemed to have hard time standing on his own two legs; he was swaying from side to side, and then he fell down to the ground, in a sitting position. "Sully!" Nate called, holding the old man under his right arm.

Sully held out his right hand. "No, no, I'm fine. We can keep going," he told Drake.

"You sure? We could rest for a while, if you need to."

"In this heat…? I think I'll rather walk," Sully said, while slowly rising up from the ground. "And if we are lucky, and actually find this damn relic. We could spend the money in a bar, just like you said," he continued. Drake watched him with a grin on his face.

The path they took towards the golden peak in the east, continued for another hour. "I knew that we should have taken some water with us," Drake said to himself. Sully was too busy struggling to walk the path to hear Drake's mistakes.

Then they finally reached it… or what was left of an old Mayan temple, in the middle of a thick jungle. "What the hell is this?!" Sully called out, Drake could hear the anger, and disappointment inside his voice. "I thought you said this was a temple."

"And it is!" Drake tried to defend himself, but he knew that he had made a big mistake this time, or at least, it seemed like a big mistake. "See…? Up there, that's the golden peak I saw from the tree," Drake continued while pointing up, towards what seemed like a golden peak in the middle of the sky. The temple had been huge back in the day, rising high towards the sky. The peak of the temple was still intact, but the rest of the temple had been destroyed, and the jungle had started to reclaim it domain of the temple grounds. Vines completely covered the sides of the temple's walls, and the lower, and destroyed parts of it.

"But it's nothing hear Drake," Sully said, still with the same disappointment in his voice. "It's just an old Mayan temple," he continued. "Maybe commander Raul, gave you the wrong location?"

Drake rubbed his recently shaved chin, something is wrong here, he thought, while looking at the long and seemingly endless vines, covering the remains of the temple. "No… I don't think he would do something like that, he seemed pretty sure."

"But there are probably many more temples like these in this damn jungle," Sully said. "We can't possibly search them all, not the two of us alone."

"Why not?!" Drake asked with a grin on his face. "It would be our own little adventure."

"Kid, we've had many adventures together, I mean _a lot _of adventures, but this… this seems like a god damn suicide mission," Sully answered, while taking out another cigarette from his pocket.

"Weren't you just complaining about those?" Drake asked.

"Yeah, but now I have a reason to smoke them, earlier; I didn't," Sully answered.

Drake started to chuckle, rubbing his sweaty forehead. "Come on, Sully. We know it's here. I mean, the temple has a _golden peak_!" Drake said, while pointing up at the peak.

"Hah! Good luck getting up there, and taking it down," Sully replied, he found a good spot for him to sit down, on a fallen tree, under a big shadow. "While you go up there, and play Tarzan. I will be sitting here, resting, like I should have done earlier."

Drake looked at his old mentor, but didn't say anything. He didn't have anything smart to say, because he too started to question if they would find this relic at all.

But what Drake feared the most, wasn't that they maybe wouldn't find this ancient relic, in this vast jungle. Even though it was high on his momentarily list of fears, but not as much as fearing what commander Raul, the fearsome commander, would do to them if they didn't find the relic. Would he be understanding and say; "ah, it's no problem guys. You did the best you could," or would he skin them alive? Drake would bet his money on the latter, and he liked his skin where it was, on his body.

The temple was built in the middle of a large clearing; it seemed like the perfect spot for a Mayan prayer temple, even though Drake didn't exactly know how a perfect Mayan prayer spot looked like. But this clearing, it looked peaceful, and untouched by the human machines, which were building houses, parking garages, and malls, all over the wide world.

That was the biggest thing Drake loved about his 'job,' he got to travel the world, and see all these great, and uncharted places, where the humans couldn't devour, and build whatever they wanted.

Drake walked around the destroyed temple, seeing if there was way inside the temple. But after a few laps around the temple, he finally gave up, and walked over towards his mentor, Sully, who was still sitting in the shadows. But then he abruptly stopped, and made a puzzled expression on his face. Sully looked at him. "What's wrong kid, found anything?"

Drake didn't respond, instead he turned around, and looked at the temple, and then on the ground. "Strange…" he said to himself, while dropping on one knee, his hand was crossing the ground.

"What is it?" Sully asked, he watched to young man on the ground, on his knee. _Finally…! _He thought. Sully knew that expression on Drake's face, that excitement his body language showed.

Drake started to laugh, "I can't believe it," he told himself.

"What, Nate? What can't you believe?" Sully asked again, he rose from his spot under the shadow. For half a second he thought Drake had gone crazy from standing, walking, and even climbing in the sun.

Drake looked at Sully, and then rose up from the ground, wiping of the sand from his pants. "The ground, Sully! The ground! Don't you see?" He answered.

Sully looked at his young protégé, and then on the ground, he couldn't see, or understand anything from watching it for a few, very short, seconds. D rake looked excited, eager, almost foaming from his mouth, like a hunting dog, which had picked up the trail of an animal. "You alright kid?" He asked Drake, not daring to go anymore closer to him.

"Don't you see…?" Drake asked again, "the ground; it's disturbed. Somebody has been here before us!" He finally explained.

Sully narrowed his eyes. "Hold on, didn't we just agree that this had been a Mayan temple? Wouldn't that mean that Mayans have been here before us? I can't see why you are so excited."

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant," Drake replied, shaking his head. "If the Mayans had been here before us not so long ago, we would still see their footprints on the ground, this was there temple after all, they wouldn't need to destroy evidence that they have been here before."

"So what are you saying? That somebody, other than the Mayans, has been here before us?"

Drake grinned, and pointed his right index finger close to Sully's face. "Exactly!" He answered. "But who, other than the Mayans would come here, and then destroy the evidence of their presence, and what were they looking for?"

Sully raised his eyebrows. "You think they were looking for Raul's relic?" He asked.

Drake turned from his mentor, while rubbing his chin, and shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know… But I bet we will find the answer to that question in there," Drake answered, and then pointed towards the old, half destroyed, Mayan temple.


End file.
